CLALLAM BAY — Clallam Bay Corrections Center remained on lockdown Wednesday, as officials investigate the cause of four fights on Sunday and Monday.
It has not yet been determined when the lockdown will end, said Chad Lewis, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said Wednesday.
During a lockdown, all of the prison’s 850 offenders must remain in their cells while officers investigate and search for contraband.
Four fights broke out between Sunday afternoon and Monday, but they all appeared to be unrelated, Lewis said.
A corrections officer and a prisoner sustained minor injuries, but the officer did not require treatment and the inmate was treated at the prison.
“It appears that this fight began as an inmate-on-inmate, and then at some point the corrections officer was assaulted by one of the inmates,” said Capt. Ron Cameron, of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department.
The sheriff’s department is investigating the fight which resulted in the minor injuries.
The other fights are being investigated by personnel at the prison.
“The only thing we’ll be involved in is an assault that may have occurred on a corrections officer,” Cameron said.
“Going to take a report of an assault on a corrections officer is not an uncommon event,” Cameron said, “because an assault on an officer is a felony no matter how minor it is, because it is an inmate assaulting a corrections officer.
“Obviously there will be no arrest because they are already imprisoned, but we will refer whatever we have to the prosecutors.”
No one else was injured.
No names were released.
The lockdown will remain in effect until corrections officers interview all of the witnesses and participants in the fights to determine the cause and instigators of them.
No additional staff is expected to be needed at the prison for investigations.
